My chest burned as I dragged myself upright, every breath scraping my lungs raw. My legs screamed in protest, trembling beneath my weight, but I forced them to lock anyway. If I collapsed now, I wouldn't get back up.
This warmth…
My hand drifted to my chest instinctively.
It's real. That wasn't imagination.
"It's an Aether Core," I muttered hoarsely. "It has to be."
The Mana Fiend tilted its grotesque head, movements slow and unnervingly deliberate. For a heartbeat, it didn't attack. It watched. Its misshapen eyes tracked me with a predator's focus, as if reevaluating something it thought it understood.
Me.
It saw it too– the change. The way my stance had steadied despite my injuries. The way I'd avoided blows that should've pulverized me. The way my body moved now, faster, sharper, wrong.
I raised my fists into a guard, knuckles shaking. The motion felt ridiculous the moment I did it. As if bare hands could stop something like that. But running–? Running was pointless. It had already proven that.
The fiend struck.
Its body blurred forward, covering the distance in a heartbeat. I threw myself sideways without thinking, gravel tearing into my skin as I rolled. The thing missed me by inches– mere inches.
I moved faster– or atleast tried to.
The realization nearly made me laugh.
"I can't keep dodging," I gasped, scrambling to my feet as another limb scythed through the air where my head had been. "I have to use it. I have to–"
I ducked again, felt the pressure of its swing ripple across my back, and barely managed to roll beneath its limb as it smashed into the ruins behind me.
"But how do you even use a goddamn Legacy?!" I shouted, half in fury, half in panic.
There was no answer. Only the shriek of tearing air as the fiend attacked again.
I stumbled, ducked, rolled. My movements clumsy, ugly, but alive. My body reacted before my thoughts could, twisting away from death again and again. Instinct dragged me forward while my mind lagged behind, screaming in protest.
Pain flooded my legs as I straightened, white-hot and merciless. Every muscle felt stretched beyond its breaking point. My vision swam. And then–
The warmth surged.
It wasn't gentle. It pressed outward from my chest like something demanding release, like a clenched fist pounding against my ribs from the inside.
'Now!' I thought desperately. 'Now– do something!'
I reached inward, focusing on that heat, that presence– my Aether Core. It felt distant and unclear, slippery and vague, like trying to grab smoke with shaking hands. I clenched my teeth, pouring every ounce of desperation into it.
'Move. Change. Attack– Anything!'
Nothing happened.
The Mana Fiend was already moving.
I hurled myself sideways, shoulder slamming into the ground hard enough to knock the breath from my lungs. Stone bit into my skin. I forced myself up anyway, staggering just as another strike obliterated the space where my torso had been a second earlier.
My heart hammered wildly.
"No–no, no–" I hissed, thrusting a trembling hand forward. "Work. Just– work!"
That unfamiliar warmth flooded down my arm, coiling into my palm. For a split second, hope flared so sharply it hurt.
And then– nothing.
The Mana Fiend let out a distorted screech and surged forward again, its warped body cutting through the ruins like a living battering ram. I barely registered the movement before my instincts screamed.
I jumped.
The creature's claw passed beneath my feet, pulverizing the stone where I'd stood a heartbeat earlier. I hit the ground hard, rolled, and scrambled upright, breath tearing out of my lungs in ragged bursts.
Focus. Think. Do something.
The warmth in my chest pulsed erratically now, no longer steady, more like a dying flame flickering in violent bursts. It felt close, maddeningly close, as if the power were right there, just beyond reach.
"Come on," I whispered, panic sharpening my voice. "You woke up. I know you did!"
The Mana Fiend slowed again, circling this time. Its massive limbs scraped against broken stone as it moved, carving shallow grooves into the ground. It wasn't rushing anymore.
It was toying with me.
Its gaze bored into me, unblinking, analytical. Like it was studying a malfunctioning tool.
I clenched my fists so hard my nails bit into my palms. "You think you've won?" I rasped. "I'm still standing you godforsaken Creature."
My legs shook violently, threatening to give out at any second. Pain flared with every movement, bruises, fractures, internal damage I couldn't even begin to assess. And still, I forced myself into motion as the fiend lunged again.
I sidestepped too late.
The edge of its limb clipped my shoulder, spinning me violently. I crashed into the ground, rolled twice, and came up choking on dust and blood. My vision blurred at the edges.
'Get up– Get up. Get up!'
I staggered to my feet just as another strike came down. I ducked under it, felt the air ripple past my scalp, and threw myself forward, putting distance between us, although barely.
"Why won't you respond?!" I shouted, clutching my chest. "What do you want from me?!"
The warmth surged again, sharp and sudden, like something clawing its way up my spine. My heart pounded so violently I thought it might burst.
'This is it.' I thought wildly. 'This has to be it!'
I planted my feet and reached inward again, harder this time. No restraint. No caution. I tore at the sensation, forcing my will down into the core of that heat.
'Adapt. Attack. Protect me. Anything–anything god damn it!'
For a fleeting moment, something shifted.
My skin prickled. The pain dulled for half a heartbeat. Hope exploded in my chest so violently it almost made me laugh.
"Yes–!" I gasped.
Then it vanished.
The warmth receded like a tide pulled back by some cruel, invisible force. The pain came roaring back tenfold, and with it, the realization that nothing had actually changed.
"No." I whispered. "No, no, no."
The Mana Fiend struck.
I didn't even see the attack properly. One moment it was in front of me, the next–
Impact.
Something slammed into my side with catastrophic force. A wet, crunching sound echoed through my body as I was lifted off my feet like a ragdoll. The world spun violently, colors smearing into one another as I flew through the air.
I crashed.
Stone shattered beneath me as my body tore through a collapsed wall and skidded across the rubble beyond. Pain detonated everywhere at once, white-hot, blinding, absolute. I felt bones give way, felt something in my side snap, felt the sickening shift of fractures grinding against each other.
I couldn't breathe.
I hit the ground and didn't move.
For a long, terrifying second, there was nothing but ringing silence.
Then my lungs spasmed, forcing air in with a violent wheeze. Agony flared in my chest, and I rolled onto my side, coughing violently.
Blood spilled from my mouth, dark and thick, splattering onto the broken stone beneath me.
"–khh–!" I gagged, another cough wracking my body. Each convulsion sent fresh waves of pain tearing through my ribs and spine. Something was very wrong.
'Broken–' my mind supplied dimly. 'A lot of things are broken.'
My vision swam as the Mana Fiend's heavy footsteps approached, each one vibrating through the ground like a death sentence. I tried to push myself up, and screamed.
My arm gave out instantly, pain lancing through it like fire. My side burned with every shallow breath. Panic surged, cold and suffocating.
'No. No– this isn't how it ends. This can't be–'
My thoughts fractured, scattering uselessly. I couldn't focus. I couldn't plan. All I could do was feel. The pain, the fear, the crushing weight of helplessness.
The warmth in my chest flickered faintly, almost apologetic.
"Please," I whispered hoarsely, blood dripping from my lips. "I'm begging you."
The Mana Fiend loomed closer, its shadow swallowing me whole.
'Get up!' I screamed at myself.
'Move. Do something– Anything!'
My hands clawed at the ground as I forced my body to respond. Every inch I moved felt like tearing myself apart. My vision blurred, black spots dancing at the edges.
I dragged one knee beneath me.
My body shook violently as I pushed up, teeth clenched so hard my jaw ached. Blood dripped from my chin, spattering the stone.
"I'm not–" I coughed, spitting red. "–done."
The world tilted as I slowly, painfully rose to my feet, swaying like I might collapse at any moment. Pain screamed through every fractured bone, every torn muscle.
The Mana Fiend waited.
And somewhere beneath the panic, beneath the agony, beneath the terror clawing at my mind–
The warmth stirred.
Weak. Flickering, but still there.
And as I struggled to form a single coherent thought, dread and desperation twisting together in my chest, one realization cut through the chaos with terrifying clarity:
If my Legacy didn't awaken now,
I wouldn't survive another second.